State v. Dampier

• Decision Date: 19 March 1907
• Citation: 43 So. 422,53 Fla. 508
• Court: Florida Supreme Court
• Parties: STATE et rel. WEEKS et al. v. DAMPIER et al., County Com'rs.

43 So. 422

53 Fla. 508

STATE et rel. WEEKS et al. v. DAMPIER et al., County Com'rs.

Florida Supreme Court, Division A.

March 19, 1907

Error to Circuit Court, Alachua County; James T. Wills, Judge.

Action by the state, on the relation of R. B. Weeks and others against J. G. Dampier and others. Judgment for defendants and plaintiffs bring error. Affirmed, under a mandate, with leave to amend.

Syllabus by the Court

SYLLABUS

Where on writ of error, the relator in mandamus proceedings disclaims an intention to have the writ cover matters included within its terms, upon which issues are made by the respondents, an order quashing the alternative writ will be affirmed, and the cause will be remanded, with leave to amend the alternative writ.

COUNSEL J. M. Rivers and W. W. Hampton, for plaintiffs in error.

B. A Thrasher, for defendants in error.

OPINION

WHITFIELD J.

The following act of the Legislature appears on page 374 of the Acts of 1905 as chapter 5552, Laws of Florida:

'Chapter 5552.--(No. 181.)

'An act to provide for the payment of all surplus funds in the fine and forfeiture fund of Alachua county, in the state of Florida, exceeding four thousand dollars, into the school fund of said county.

'Be it enacted by the Legislature of the state of Florida:

'Section 1. That all funds in the hands of the county treasurer of Alachua county, Florida, to the credit of the fine and forfeiture fund of said county, exceeding four thousand dollars, shall be paid into the school fund of said county, and the county commissioners of said county shall draw their warrant in favor of the board of public instruction thereof for all such runds on their first meeting in July and January of each year, and the warrant so drawn shall be cashed into the school fund of the county without any treasurer's commissions therefor.

'Sec. 2. That this act shall take effect immediately upon its becoming a law.

'Approved May 17, 1905.'

On March 5, 1905, the judge of the Elghth judicial circuit issued an alternative writ of mandamus commanding the defendants in error, as the county commissioners for Alachua county, Fla., to 'issue to the said R. B. Weeks, T. A. Doke, and W. J. Martin, as members of and constituting the board of public instruction for the county of Alachua, state of Florida, a warrant against the funds in the hands of the treasurer of Alachua county, Fla., to the credit of the fine and forfeiture fund of said county, for the sum of $13,421.19,' or show cause for not doing so.

The respondents, as county commissioners, moved to quash the alternative writ on the grounds that (1) there are no sufficient parties to the relation; (2) the allegations and statements in said writ are vague, indefinite, and contradictory; (3) there is no law imposing upon them the duty of issuing to R. B. Weeks, T. A. Doke, and W. J. Martin as members of and constituting the board of public instruction for the county of Alachua, state of Florida, a warrant against the funds in the hands of the treasurer of Alachua county, Fla., to the credit of the fine and forfeiture fund of said county for the sum of $13,421.19; (4) that chapter 5552, Acts 1905, is in conflict with article 3 and sections 20 and 21 of said article 3 of the Constitution of Florida, and is null and void; (5) that said chapter 5552, Acts 1905, is in conflict with the provisions of article 12 of the Constitution of this state, and is null and void; (6) that said chapter 5552, Acts 1905, is in conflict with section 1, art. 9, of the Constitution of Florida, and is null and void.

This motion was granted, and the alternative writ of mandamus was quashed. The relators took a writ of ...